• measures of inequality of opportunity for 47 countries based on 124 surveys • measures of income mobility across generations for 26 countries based on 52 surveys • measures of the intergenerational transmissionof status for 41 countries based on 288 surveys

• measures of educational mobility across generations for 148 countries based on 152 surveys

The data show a positive correlation between income inequality and inequality of opportunities. Countries with a higher degree of income inequality are also characterized by greater inequality of opportunity.

In other words, the argument according to which inequality of results is the price to pay for a mobile society where the “social lift” works and where there is equality of starting points is not supported by the data.

On the contrary, the empirical evidence shows a negative correlation between income inequality and equality of opportunity: the greater the distance between individual outcomes and positions, the greater the difficulty in passing from one position to an other over the course of one generation.